“Israel’s future guarantees our salvation.”

Amir Tsarfati began his sermon with these words while speaking a few years ago at Calvary Chapel Church in Kaneohe, Hawaii, JD Farag’s church. As I listened to his message and thought about his startling claim, I realized his assertion was totally correct.

In my book, The Triumph of the Redeemed, I wrote the following:

“Consider this: If God can break His covenants with such Old Testament champions of the faith as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, what does that say about His promises regarding our salvation? If God can renege on His unconditional promises to Israel, ones He repeated many times throughout the writings of the prophets and in the Psalms, what does that say about our security?” [i]

You might wonder how Israel’s future relates to our glorious hope in Jesus’ imminent appearing. Does its significance extend beyond our security as believers?

Yes, it does. Those who deny a restoration of Israel carry over their mistreatment of Scripture to New Testament passages referring to the Rapture and to the book of Revelation. And since they do not recognize any prophetic significance to Israel’s reemergence as a nation, they remain blind to the signs of the approaching seven-year Tribulation and fail to warn others of the approaching doom.

It’s for these reasons and more that I always begin my defense of the pre-Tribulation Rapture with the biblical teaching regarding the future restoration of Israel. Such biblical teaching validates our glorious hope in Jesus’ imminent appearing because it confirms the veracity of the prophetic texts supporting it.

As the foundations of our world crumble into dust, we need the encouragement that the Bible gives us regarding our anticipation of the Lord’s return for us. He is the anchor of our hope!

Every day, NATO and Russia creep closer to the start of World War III, which might have deadly consequences for millions of people. Many credible voices predict disastrous worldwide food shortages during 2023. A great many people in Europe and in Ukraine will die his winter as a result of the ongoing battle between Zelenskyy and Putin that has caused a shortage of the natural gas needed to heat homes. In addition, globalists continue their steady campaign of depopulation (click here).

Because of these perilous realities, we need the validation of our glorious hope, which begins with what the Bible tells us about the certain and future restoration of a kingdom to Israel.

1. The Father Cannot Break His Promise to His Son.

In Psalm 2:7-8, we read this promise of the Father to the Son:

“The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’”

The pledge of the Father to the Son in these verses verifies that there will be a reign of Jesus on the earth at a time when sin is possible, as evidenced by the need for the Lord to exercise severe discipline during His rule.

The context clarifies that this is a physical rule over the nations of the world, during which time Jesus brandishes a “rod of iron” and dashes the nations “in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:9-10).

Psalm 2 cannot apply spiritually to the church age since Jesus never deals with believers in such a manner. Nor can it represent Jesus’ rule in the eternal state since sin is present.

The only possible fulfillment for the words of Psalm 2 is the future thousand-year rule of Christ, which we refer to as the millennium because of the repeated reference to a thousand years in Revelation 20:1-10.

2. A Future Restored Israel Maintains the Integrity of Scripture

One cannot deny the reality of a restored kingdom for Israel and at the same time interpret the prophetic words of Scripture in the way the authors intended them at the time they wrote them.

Zechariah prophesied about a time after Jesus’ crucifixion when a great number of the Israelites would repent and recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Using references in the context that cannot apply to anyone else, the prophet foresaw a time when Jacob’s descendants would recognize the One “they have pierced” as their true Messiah and weep, signifying their regret and repentance (Zech. 12:10-13:1).

Zechariah 14:9 later depicts the Lord as “king over all the earth.” This occurs in Jerusalem during a time when rebellion remains possible on the earth (see vv. 16-19). The prophet is not talking about a spiritual reign, nor can one apply these words to the eternal state since there’s again the possibility of disobedience and sin in the context. The words must refer to Jesus’ reign over the nations from Jerusalem.

If Scripture can mean one thing when written and have an entirely different sense at a later time, then we would no longer be able to trust it.

That’s why we must reject the retrofitting of God’s promises to Israel in order to make them apply spiritually to the church.

3. Consistency of Biblical Interpretation Refutes Replacement Theology

When Dr. David Reagan, Bible Scholar and founder of the Lamb and Lion Ministry, appeared on Jan Markell’s radio show, he explained how he came to believe in a future restoration of the nation of Israel. It happened as he noticed how Jesus literally fulfilled all the prophecies in the book of Zechariah related to His first coming. That led Dr. Reagan to conclude that there must be a literal fulfillment for the prophecies that remained unfilled regarding Israel and Jesus’ future reign.

The consistency of Bible interpretation demands that we apply a literal interpretation to texts that speak of a future restoration of Israel and reject the spiritualization of such texts.

Isaiah 9:6-7 shows how consistency of interpretation necessitates Christ’s millennial rule. Those who deny a future for Israel agree that Jesus fulfilled this passage when He came into the world as a baby in Bethlehem. However, they switch to a much different mode of interpretation and suddenly regard words in this closely-knit text regarding Christ’s future rule from the “throne of David” as merely symbolic.

If that is the case, why would the angel Gabriel repeat these words from this passage when he announced the Savior’s birth to Mary (Luke 1:32-33)? Why would he tell Mary that Jesus would “reign over the house of Jacob forever” if the passage in Isaiah is symbolic rather than literal? These words relate to a physical kingdom, which is the only possible way that Mary could have understood the words of Gabriel at the time.

4. The Sun Is Shining Outside My Office Window

Lest you think I’m crazy for including this as an argument for Israel’s future restoration, let me refer you to Jeremiah 31:35-40.

Those who subscribe to the errant teaching that God has replaced Israel with the church tell us that the descendants of Jacob no longer exist as a viable nation in God’s sight. The Lord Himself nixes such teaching in Jeremiah 31:35-36:

“Thus says the LORD,
who gives the sun for light by day
and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the Lord of hosts is his name:
‘If this fixed order departs
from before me, declares the Lord,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
from being a nation before me forever.’”

According to the words of the Lord, the continuing existence of the sun, moon, and stars tell us that Israel remains a nation in His sight. As if He anticipated those who would seek a faulty spiritual interpretation of these words, God added a physical description of places in and around Jerusalem, stating that after the city’s future restoration, “It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever” (Jeremiah 31:38-40).

So yes, the sun shining outside my window today confirms Israel’s continuing existence as a nation because the Lord gave us that as one of the signs of it.

5. Replacement Theology Opens the Door to Heresy

History demonstrates that over time, replacement theology leads to a further erosion of biblical truth, thereby opening the door to further doctrinal error. When one retrofits biblical texts in order to make the physical prophecies of a kingdom apply spiritually to the church rather than physically to Israel, it always erodes the integrity of God’s Word. Such teaching always, always leads to heresy over time!

The events of January of 2020 show how such denying a kingdom for Israel leads to further erosion of biblical truth. It was then that churches in Scotland and England, long immersed in replacement theology, disinvited Franklin Graham to speak due to his views on the LGBTQ agenda. Bryan Kerr, a Church of Scotland pastor in Lanark, said this, “Franklin Graham isn’t the voice of Christianity.”

Replacement theology, or amillennialism, always, over time, opens the door to heresy. Absolutely without fail.

The apostle Paul clearly stated that “God has not rejected Israel” (Romans 11:1-2). The proponents of replacement theology tell us that the Lord has rejected Israel. Can you see from just this one example how this errant doctrine erodes confidence in the words of Scripture and later leads to heresy?

6. God’s Covenant of the Land for Israel Remains in Effect for Israel.

God could not have made it any clearer than He did in Chronicles 16:14-16 and in Psalm 105:8-11. In these texts, the Lord states that His covenant of the Land with Abraham, Isaac, and the descendants of Jacob remains in effect forever. Why would God say it’s “an everlasting covenant” if he did not intend us to understand it “as an everlasting covenant?”

If the Lord says something is “everlasting,” it’s exactly that! It just doesn’t just go away because of bad behavior or reach fulfillment in some other mysterious way. The promise of the Land for the descendants of Jacob remains in effect because God assigns the words “everlasting” to it.

7. The Seventieth Week of Daniel Remains Unfulfilled

In a previous post, The Biblical Necessity of a Third Jewish Temple, I follow the thread of prophecies from Daniel 9:27 through the New Testament, demonstrating that Daniel’s prophecy regarding the desecration of a future Jewish temple remains unfulfilled. Please go to this post for a thorough argument as to why the seventieth week of Daniel, something exclusively for Israel, remains unfulfilled.

Since the antichrist’s sacrilege of the Jewish temple during this final week of years remains unfulfilled, the entire seventieth week of Daniel 9:24-27 must also await a future fulfillment. In other words, the full scope of God’s purposes for choosing Israel has not reached completion.

There must be a time when God’s attention returns to the descendants of Jacob. This alone makes it impossible for one to claim that God has replaced Israel with the church.

8. Jesus’ Response to the Disciples’ Question

In Acts 1:6, the disciples asked Jesus this question moments before His ascension; “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6)?

The Savior responded to their question with these words, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” (Acts 1:7)

Please notice that Jesus did not contradict, ridicule, or refute the premise of their question that He would restore a kingdom to Israel. Instead, He simply told his disciples they could not know the timing of this restoration as it was something the Father alone had “fixed by his own authority.”

In the Old Testament, the Lord repeatedly promised to “restore the fortunes” of Israel. The disciples had a firm scriptural basis for their question regarding the future restoration of Israel, one that Jesus did not refute or contradict.

9. We Have Witnessed Prophecy Fulfilled in Israel’s Existence as a Nation

Besides the above reasons, we recognize God’s hand at work in the miraculous emergence of Israel as a nation in 1948 and in God’s supernatural of the nation since that time.

Perhaps the most tragic error of those that promote replacement theology is that they remain blind to the signs of the time and don’t believe that we live in the last days. Those who deny the prophetic significance of Israel’s reemergence as a nation also fail to heed Jesus’ command that we watch for His coming.

They might say that Jesus can come at any time, but everything else they teach concerning eternity pushes it to a far distant time that they refer to as “the end of the age.” Sadly, they leave those in their audience totally unprepared for what’s happening in our world and tragically unaware of the nearness of Jesus’ appearing.

All this is to say that the Lord keeps His covenants with and promises to Israel. Likewise, Jesus will keep His promises to us and soon will catch us up to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Israel’s future restoration validates our hope as New Testament saints in Jesus’ imminent appearing. Just as God will keep His promises to Israel, so will He fulfill our hope of glory at His appearing.

The apostle Paul stated with great clarity that “God has not rejected Israel” (Romans 11:1-2). The proponents of replacement tell us that the Lord has rejected Israel. Who do you believe?

My book, The Triumph of the Redeemed-An eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times, is available on Amazon. In it, I provide much more detail regarding the absolute biblical necessity of a restored Israel and the refutation of the false teaching of replacement theology.

Note: Please consider signing up for my newsletter on the home page of my website at https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/. It will greatly help me reach more people. Thanks!

…

[i] Jonathan C. Brentner, The Triumph of the Redeemed (Crane, MO: Defender Publishing, 2021), p. 43.

Introduction

Many Bible scholars maintain that most, if not all, of the prophecies in the Olivet Discourse were fulfilled in the events surrounding the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D. Some have even gone on to embrace Replacement Theology, the teaching that all O.T. promises made to the nation of Israel have been transferred to the church and that God is done with Israel. Does Scripture teach that God has a future for the nation of Israel? More specifically, do Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 necessitate the existence of a Jewish nation in the end times? This essay will argue that the Olivet Discourse extends far beyond the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and that this necessitates the existence of a literal Jewish nation that will face the wrath of God in the Tribulation and be saved out of it at Messiah’s return.

The Audience of the Olivet Discourse

The Olivet Discourse was delivered by Jesus on the Mount of Olives in front of Jerusalem three days before His crucifixion. In it, Jesus provided His disciples with an overview of eschatological events culminating in His second advent. The immediate context of the discourse is a question posed by Jesus’ disciples: “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” The disciples would have understood from Zechariah 14 that a time of tribulation would precede the kingdom, but they would not have expected the kingdom to have been postponed for thousands of years (Luke 21:24).

Jesus’ prophecy deals primarily with the tribulation that will occur just before the inauguration of the kingdom. The kingdom was offered to the Jewish nation during Christ’s first coming, but the Jews rejected it because they “were not looking for inward deliverance from sin but for outward deliverance from political oppression.”⁽¹⁾ In other words, the Jews expected Messiah to deliver them from the Roman Empire and restore Israel to her place as head of the nations. It must be recognized that the Jews were mostly correct in their eschatology. Their error was that they failed to recognize that Messiah would come twice — first, to die for the sins of mankind, and second, to establish His millennial kingdom. In the Old Testament, both advents are described in detail with no time gap indicated between the two

With Israel identified as the primary audience of the discourse, the interpreter can either anticipate a future literal fulfillment of the discourse, or he can dismiss most of the discourse as having been fulfilled in 70 A.D. as the late R.C. Sproul has done.⁽²⁾ If all of Christ’s prophecies were fulfilled historically in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.), future prophetic fulfillment is unnecessary. If, however, it is determined that portions of the Olivet Discourse are yet future, it must be concluded that Jesus is talking to end-times Israel.

Israel in the Tribulation

As discussed earlier, the disciples’ question concerning the temple’s destruction was rooted in their understanding of the Messianic kingdom, which they knew from O.T. prophecy would be preceded by a time of trouble (Jer 30:7, Dan 12:1, Zech 14:1-4). Concerning the scope of this time of trouble, O.T. prophecy reveals two realities: 1) It is global, not regional. 2) It focuses on Israel in particular, even though all nations are affected.

The birth pains of Matthew 24:4-8 roughly correspond to the first four seal judgments of Revelation 6. This places their fulfillment in the first half of the Tribulation.⁽³⁾ In v.6, Jesus addresses the future Jewish nation, saying, “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.” This is significant and could not have been fulfilled before Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948. Furthermore, the wars that Jesus warned about in v.7 (nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom) cannot be characterized as the general course of the church age but are specific events that will be fulfilled in the Tribulation. These birth pains of war and natural disaster (v.7) are global catastrophes and must not be limited to the Roman world of 70 A.D., which many commentators have unfortunately done.⁽⁴⁾

Israel and the Gospel

It can be inferred from the Olivet Discourse that Israel is an active player in the Tribulation. In v.14, Jesus says that immediately prior to the end, the “gospel of the kingdom” will be preached to all nations. Many interpreters hear this phrase and make the mistake of conflating it with the personal gospel of eternal life. The “gospel of the kingdom” is a technical phrase that always refers to the Jewish expectation of the Messianic kingdom. This gospel is identical to that preached by Jesus and John the Baptist. The fact that it is being proclaimed during the Tribulation demands that the nation of Israel is in existence again. This prophecy will be fulfilled during the Tribulation by the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. It was not fulfilled in 70 A.D., and it will never be fulfilled by the church because the church will be raptured before the kingdom is again offered to Israel.

The Abomination of Desolation

The Abomination of Desolation is a phrase that appears five times in Scripture (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11; Matthew 24:15, and Mark 13:14). In four of these passages, the phrase refers to the Antichrist’s desecration of the Jerusalem temple. However, in Daniel 11:31, the reference is to a historical event that foreshadows the future reality. Following a humiliating defeat in Egypt, Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes sent his general Apollonius with 22,000 soldiers into Jerusalem on an alleged peace mission. The soldiers, however, brutally slaughtered many residents of the city, taking many women and children captive.⁽⁵⁾

Antiochus IV forbade Jews to keep the Sabbath or recite the Torah under pain of death. Finally, On December 16, 167 BC, Antiochus IV terminated sacrifice and offering at the Jerusalem temple and erected an altar to Zeus in the Jerusalem temple. The Jews were forced to offer a pig on the 25th of each month to celebrate Antiochus Epiphanes’ birthday.⁽⁶⁾ This event was called the Abomination of Desolation because it was a vile act that rendered the temple ritually defiled and unfit for worship.

Many scholars understand the remaining four references to this event as all referring to Antiochus. This is problematic because Jesus anticipated it happening again in the future. Matthew 24:15-16 says, “So when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand), “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.”

Jesus’ words are significant because they imply that the Abomination of Desolation will 1) occur again, and 2) be recognizable to the residents of Jerusalem, serving as a warning sign to flee the city immediately. The Abomination of Desolation will have two components. First, the Antichrist will forcibly terminate all sacrifices and offerings to the God of Israel, taking his seat in the Most Holy Place and declaring himself to be God. Second, the false prophet will construct an image of the Antichrist in the temple to mark the Antichrist’s ongoing presence in Jerusalem as the city becomes a worship center for the Antichrist and epicenter of the final holocaust.

As soon as the Abomination of Desolation occurs, Jews living in or near Jerusalem are instructed to flee for their lives immediately. Any delay in escape will mean certain death. Mark indicates that even after the Jews have reached safety in the east, false prophets will infiltrate their ranks, performing miracles that apparently deceive some into leaving their places of hiding and returning to Jerusalem where they will be killed (Mark 13:21-23).

In Matthew 24:20, Jesus instructs his Jewish readers to pray that their escape will not occur in winter or on the Sabbath. Why? In modern Israel, public transportation is closed on the Sabbath, making escape on the Sabbath more treacherous. Concerning the winter season, Arnold Fruchtenbaum provides a compelling analysis, one that demonstrates that Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience residing in the land of Israel:

The reason for this prayer is that the Jews will be escaping toward the mountains in the east. Most of the escape routes will force them to use wadis, which are dry water beds that only fill up with flash floods when it rains during the winter months. Israel receives no rain between April and October. From October through the winter months up until April, Israel receives all its rain for the year. When it does rain, many of these wadis become filled instantly and are very dangerous to cross. Frequently in Israel, people drown because they are caught in these dry riverbeds during a flash flood. If the Abomination of Desolation occurs during the winter months, it will make the escape toward the east that much more difficult. So, prayer is urged that it will not happen in winter.⁽⁷⁾

In summary, the Abomination of Desolation and Jesus’ warning to the Jews in Jerusalem to flee the city can only occur in relation to Israel in the Tribulation. Its prophetic antecedent, the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, gives readers a clear picture of what will happen to Israel in the future.

Will Modern Israel go through the Great Tribulation?

The Nazi Holocaust is a core feature of Israeli identity. The Israeli pledge “Never Again” conveys the promise that the Jewish people have made to themselves that they will never allow the Nazi Holocaust to repeat itself. In other words, never again will Israel experience the atrocities of Adolf Hitler, which wiped out two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population.

Unfortunately, as the Bible teaches, the leadership of Israel will sign on to a deadly covenant with a world dictator that will secure the nation’s complete annihilation if it were not for Messiah’s return in glory. Israel’s ongoing rejection of Jesus as their only Savior and Messiah will secure their vulnerability to the Antichrist. Consequently, the Olivet Discourse is largely a survival guide to the Jews in the Tribulation who have come to know Jesus. These Jewish believers will have heard the gospel of the kingdom; that is, the message that Jesus is soon returning to inaugurate His Messianic kingdom. That message alone necessitates the fulfillment of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, which will purge Israel in preparation for the kingdom.

How do some scholars get around this and fall into Replacement Theology? By asserting that the entire sequence of end-times events laid out in the discourse was fulfilled in A.D. 70 during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Many scholars make this error when they fail to recognize that Jesus discusses two crises in Jerusalem that are separated by thousands of years.

Two Different Crises in Jerusalem

The Olivet Discourse begins with a question that the disciples ask Jesus. This question is recorded differently in Luke than it is in Matthew and Mark because Luke is concerned with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In Luke 21:7, the disciples ask Jesus, “so when will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” Jesus responds in verse 20: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that its desolation has come near.” This likely refers to the Roman 10th Legion under General Titus, which had surrounded Jerusalem in the summer of 70 A.D. The siege would continue and eventually make escape utterly futile. Concerning the siege, Josephus writes:

So, all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews, together with their liberty of going out of the city. Then did the famine widen its progress and devoured the people by whole houses and families; the upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine; and the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged; the children also and the young men wandered about the marketplaces like shadows, all swelled with the famine, and fell dead wheresoever their misery seized them.⁽⁸⁾

This was the very sign that Jesus said would indicate that the temple’s destruction was imminent. His warning to Jewish believers in Jerusalem during this time was to flee the city as soon as they saw Jerusalem surrounded by Roman armies. Jesus wanted his readers to know that there would be no divine deliverance. The city had been given over to judgment (Luke 21:22), and anyone still in the city when these events unfolded would be vulnerable to death. The warnings that follow in vs. 21-23 sound remarkably similar to those in Matthew 24:16 because Jesus uses the former sign to illustrate the severity of the latter sign, which according to Matthew 24:15, is the Abomination of Desolation.

In other words, in 70 A.D., the sign of the temple’s destruction was the siege of the city under general Titus. During the Tribulation, the sign of the end will be the Abomination of Desolation. Jesus, then, refers to two different signs, which are two different crises in Jerusalem. In the earlier crisis (70 A.D.), the city was destroyed, whereas in the latter crisis (the Tribulation), the city, though severely ravaged, will be delivered. Quite clearly, these two sieges are not the same, though both can only be applied to literal Israel, ruling out a church-age fulfillment. These are both geographical events relating to the Jewish people and their Holy City. Importantly, they both serve as signs of impending judgment.

Conclusion

The Olivet Discourse provides students of Scripture with a general blueprint of the future, specifically as it relates to Israel. Jesus surveys the Tribulation and warns Jewish believers about the Abomination of Desolation and how to escape and persevere until the end. The events and personages in the discourse necessitate the existence of a literal Jewish nation in the end times. Hundreds of prophecies in the Bible anticipate a future regathering of Israel in the end times, and the Olivet Discourse may be added to the number. Though it does not specifically predict the regathering of Israel, the entire substance of the discourse is based on the presupposition that God will have brought His chosen people back into their ancient homeland to endure a time of testing that will result in their redemption.

In the twenty-first century, students of Scripture have witnessed the initial stages of this fulfillment, indicating that God is beginning to wrap up human history.

Alexander Major

Southern California Seminary, El Cajon, CA

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End Notes

1. John Macarthur. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2016.
2. R.C Sproul. The Last Days According to Jesus: When Did Jesus Say He Would Return? Grand Rapids, Mi: Baker Books, 2015, 158. Dr. R.C. Sproul and others argue that “the substance of the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled in A.D. 70. This is achieved by an allegorizing of the text.
3. Some premillennialists, such as John Walvoord and David Jeremiah, understand the birth pains of false messiahs, wars, famine, and death, to begin in the church age, only to accelerate once the church is raptured. Others like Scofield have understood the birth pains to find strict fulfillment in the tribulation. This view is in harmony with the reality that Jesus speaks in definite terms about definite events that will literally be fulfilled.
4. Jamieson, Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown. 1997. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. Vol. 2. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc: “The annals of Tacitus tell us how the Roman world was convulsed, before the destruction of Jerusalem, by rival claimants of the imperial purple.” This interpretation is highly problematic because Jesus is prophesying world war (nation rising against nation) before His return. He is not speaking of regional skirmishes.
5. Pentecost, J. Dwight. 1985. “Daniel.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:1370. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
6. Ibid.
7. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum. “The Footsteps of the Messiah: A Study of the Sequence of Prophetic Events” (Tustin, CA) Ariel Minstries, 2003, 510.
8. Flavius Josephus and William Whiston. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987.